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Benno Hansen

BBC News - Plant-killing fungi 'drive rainforest biodiversity' - 0 views

  • the presence of fungal pathogens limited the growth of dominant species, allowing other plants to become established.
Benno Hansen

Scientists Uncover Evolutionary Past of Hallucinogenic 'Magic' Mushrooms - 0 views

  • This new study, though, places the two separate groups into different families: the Psilocybe (family Hymenogastraceae) and the Deconica (family Strophariaceae s.str).
  • It's likely that the mushrooms evolved independently instead of possessing a common ancestor. Another option is that they underwent several evolutionary losses, probably for ecological reasons.
Benno Hansen

How Removing Trees Can Kill You | PBS NewsHour - 0 views

  • people recover faster from surgery and take fewer drugs if their hospital room has a view of trees.
  • mothers with more trees around their homes are less likely to have underweight babies
  • if you put people in a natural environment, it can reduce their blood pressure, heart rate and other measures of stress
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  • Maybe we want to start thinking of trees as part of our public health infrastructure.
Benno Hansen

Sulfur finding may hold key to Gaia theory of Earth as living organism - 0 views

  • One of the early predictions of this hypothesis was that there should be a sulfur compound made by organisms in the oceans that was stable enough against oxidation in water to allow its transfer to the air.
  • "Dimethylsulfide emissions play a role in climate regulation through transformation to aerosols that are thought to influence the Earth's radiation balance,"
  • measurements revealed an unexpected variability in an isotopic signal that appears to be related to the way the sulfur is metabolized
Benno Hansen

Computer-controlled cyborg yeast | ExtremeTech - 0 views

  • The computer turns the yeast on by flashing a red light, and it turns the yeast off by flashing a deeper red light. Connected to the yeast is a “reporter” molecule that fluoresces when the protein is produced. The computer can see this fluorescence and alter the light it emits, thus creating a full feedback loop.
  • computers could ultimately control a multitude of biological processes
Benno Hansen

The Secret of the Fibonacci Sequence in Trees - 1 views

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    "I compared my results on graphs, and they were interesting! The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!"
Benno Hansen

Antimalarial trees in East Africa threatened with extinction - 0 views

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    "Scientists call for more research, conservation of trees to harvest potential for next generation of malaria drugs"
Benno Hansen

The Evolution of Cooperation § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM - 0 views

  • cells in sharpshooters that were jam-packed with bacteria, which converted the raw materials from sap into the vitamins and amino acids the insects need to survive
  • The glassy-winged sharpshooter has two different resident bacteria, each of which creates different nutrients for the host insect from its base diet of plant sap.
  • The bacteria, in turn, have very limited genomes. They wouldn’t be able to survive without the host insects to provide protection and a ready supply of food.
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  • the two bacteria that provide nutrients for the sharpshooter themselves have complementary genomes, each having lost formerly essential sections of their genome now found in the other. The bacteria not only produce nutrients for the host, but also depend on each other’s presence to get the nutrients they themselves need.
  • as a mutualistic relationship becomes more advanced, genomes in mutualistic bacteria become progressively smaller
  • Bacteria that are fully dependent on their hosts have significantly smaller genomes than those that are also able to live on their own
Benno Hansen

Observations: Plants cannot 'think and remember,' but there's nothing stupid about them... - 0 views

  • "Biology teachers, researchers, students and lay people all make the same mistake. I'd much rather say a plant senses and responds, rather than the plant 'knows.' Using words like 'intelligence' or 'think' for plants is just wrong
  • saying that because the surface of a pond continues to ripple once struck by a pebble, the water is "remembering" something. The analogy doesn't quite hold.
  • When exposed to strong light, Karpinski explains, plants absorb more energy than they can use for photosynthesis—but he doesn't think plants waste this excess energy. Karpinski says plants convert the energy to heat and electrochemical activity that can later trigger biological processes, like immune defenses.
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